Bond 25 Has Found Its New Director, Gets Delayed Into 2020

Bond 25 has been in disarray ever since Danny Boyle stepped away from the director’s chair last month due to “creative differences,” taking the script from writer John Hodges with him. Since then, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have been meeting with a range of filmmakers to find someone to replace him, and at last the search is over.

It’s been announced that Cary Fukunaga has been snapped up to direct the pic, and while he might not have quite the same name recognition as his forebear Sam Mendes or Boyle, his long and varied career proves that he’s a great choice for the job. His movies include 2011’s Jane Eyre and 2015’s Beasts of No Nation and he’s also worked on TV shows like the acclaimed first season of True Detective and Netflix’s new psychological drama Maniac.

Now that a director’s in place, EON’s revealed a new production start and release date for Bond 25. When Boyle vacated the project, Daniel Craig jumped ship to Rian Johnson’s Knives. Once that’s over, he’ll immediately hop back into the saddle as Bond with work on the next film beginning in March 2019. Meanwhile, what’s expected to be Craig’s final outing as 007 was previously intended to drop in November 2019, but that’s now been adjusted to February 14th, 2020.

Earlier this month, long-running Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were brought back on board the project to dust off their old ideas that were initially dumped for Boyle and Hodges’ script. Previous leaks had claimed that the duo’s movie was titled Shatterhand and would likely see Bond go off on a revenge mission after Lea Seydoux’s Madeline Swann is killed.

Interestingly, one report also said that Boyle left Bond 25 because producers wanted to kill off Craig’s 007, an idea that the director felt was absurd. If true, and Fukunaga is more adaptable to this, then it’s possible that the immortal spy might finally meet his end after nearly 60 years on our screens.